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Number 180

At Fortune Magazine’s recent “Most Powerful Women” dinner Marissa Mayer, new Yahoo CEO, made news when describing how she juggles the demands of her big job and her new-born baby.

Mayer was asked, “What’s the most important thing that you do to get it all done?” She answered that you have to “ruthlessly prioritize.” Citing legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, she said that her priorities are God, Family and Yahoo, in that order.

“Ruthlessly prioritize” is a great mantra for busy professionals. It is tempting to just react to whatever seems most pressing as the day goes along, but that can be a trap. Your most important goals and values may be overlooked because at any given moment they feel less urgent than other people’s demands for action or attention.

When you don’t have enough time or energy to go around, you should think carefully about how you are going to spend these vital resources. Time and energy should be treasured, and budgeted at least as carefully as your dollars.

If you’re not confident of your strategy for getting it all done, it’s time to devote a few minutes to thinking about your priorities. And if you’re ready to “ruthlessly prioritize,” consider these tips:

• Remember the big picture. A good foundation for setting your priorities is a statement about what matters most in your life. Your vision doesn’t have to be as succinct as Mayer’s list of “God, Family and Yahoo,” but keep it brief and keep it handy, so you can read it quickly and frequently. Some people start each New Year by rewriting their brief list or description of key values and goals.
• Prioritize work categories. The items on your lengthy “to do” list aren’t equally important. You need to be clear about your most important objectives, and to know which tasks will help you to meet them. One of my clients decided that she would prioritize her projects into these four categories:
  • Tier One: Important to her bosses, their goals and their success.
  • Tier Two: Important to the goals and success of her direct reports.
  • Tier Three: Related to her routine management responsibilities, like human resource and budget matters
  • Tier X: Stuff that probably should be done by other people.
• Try the “List of 3.” A handy technique is to start each morning with a list of 3 tasks that must be done by day’s end. These are the items that are so useful or important that their completion may make the day a success, no matter what else happens. It helps to write the list on a sticky note, white board, or somewhere else where you’ll see it frequently.
• Schedule time for “Tier One.” Make an appointment with yourself and block out time on your calendar for your List of 3 and other Tier One tasks. For many people the best time of day for this is in the morning, when they may feel more productive.
• Batch the little things. Small tasks like answering routine email and phone messages may constantly interrupt your day, making it hard to concentrate on bigger projects. A good practice is to collect of bunch of smaller items and set aside an hour or so to race through as many tasks as you can. It’s most efficient if you batch similar items, like phone calls, scheduling or filing.
• First, eat the frog. It’s tempting to procrastinate about tasks that are tedious or intimidating. But having them hanging over your head can drain energy and waste time in the long run. In his book “Eat That Frog!” Brian Tracy suggests you imagine that each day you must eat a frog before you go home. If you put it off that meal until five o’clock, your day will be ruined by the lurking thought of what you must eat. But if you eat the frog first thing in the morning, you’ll start your day with a sense of accomplishment and the knowledge that it can only get better. To “eat the frog,” start the day by tackling the hardest, least appealing task on your list. If time is short, take at least take a little bite and do one thing that will move you closer to completion.
• Say “no.” Some tasks just aren’t worth doing. Delegate where you can. And be realistic about the odds of completing some low priority “to do” items. Some projects would be nice to accomplish, but they aren’t important enough to stay on your list.

Number 179

People with a positive attitude are more likely than their glum colleagues to be healthy, productive and at their creative best. Studies show that when we feel positive we are more able to learn, grow, collaborate and maximize our contributions.

A simple way to contribute to the development of a more positive and productive culture at work is to regularly thank your colleagues. To start the “thanks” flowing, consider these tips:

• Make at least two people happier. When you take the time to thank colleagues you may improve their day. Interestingly, when you leave them feeling more positive, you are likely to feel better as well. One of the best ways to improve your own attitude is to give somebody else a boost. And positivity tends to be contagious, so thanking a colleague can create a wave of positivity that flows beyond the two of you.
• Build a habit. Some people seem to be born with an inclination to say “thanks.” It is just part of their personality and the tendency is reinforced because it brings them joy. Many of us, however, don’t have the “thank you” habit. We expect good work from our colleagues and often move on to the next challenge without celebrating each small achievement. But saying thanks isn’t time consuming and the good feeling it brings can reaffirm best practices and make the next projects flow more smoothly. So if saying thanks isn’t your natural pattern, it is worth a little effort to create a new habit.
• Set a daily goal. Once you start looking, you’ll probably find many opportunities to say “thanks.” But to get the habit started, you might want to commit to a certain number of “thank you’s” every day. One leader decided that he wanted to express praise or appreciation to at least four of his team members each day. To keep track, every morning he built a stack of four quarters on the left side of his desk. When he thanked somebody, he would move a quarter to a new stack on the desk’s right side. He didn’t allow himself to leave the office for the day until all four quarters had been shifted to the right.
• Thank people for both the big and the small. The way you say “thanks” will vary with the occasion, of course. But the point is that it can be worth noting even small achievements, or contributions that typically are taken for granted. For example, think about saying thanks when somebody:
  • Gives you a good idea. They’ll be more likely to brainstorm with you again if you share the credit when their suggestion works well.
  • Always shows up. Sometimes we forget to thank the people who tend to be reliable. If there are people you always can count on, perhaps it is time to take them to lunch and let them know how much you appreciate what they do.
  • Makes an introduction. If somebody helps you make a connection that turns out to be helpful, don’t forget to cycle back and say “thanks.”
• Write notes. A common practice is to send around an email message, offering praise and thanks, and cc-ing anybody who might be interested. But sometimes a more meaningful practice is to send a note in your own handwriting. It shows that you cared enough to pause and spend a little time and effort in expressing your appreciation.
• Thank your boss. Even if you are pretty good about thanking your peers and direct reports, you may feel reluctant to thank the people above you in the hierarchy. Most of us are reluctant to look like we’re currying favor. And nobody loves a suck-up. But it’s not sucking up if your boss deserves appreciation and your feelings are sincere. And consider the situation from their perspective. Many leaders make it to the top in part because they love praise and are driven to please others. But when they are higher in the organization there are few people above them to say “thanks” for a job well done. They may be getting the big bucks but still feeling deprived, missing the “thank you’s” that motivated them for so long.

In closing, I want to thank you for continuing to read this newsletter. And have a great Thanksgiving!

Number 178

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has urged Washington to take leadership lessons from Davey Johnson, manager of the Washington Nationals. In an October 6-7 “Wall Street Journal” column, Bernanke said that many of us could learn from the Nationals’ twin focus on statistics and intangibles.

As an economist and “unabashed Nat’s fan,” Bernanke is intrigued by baseball managers like Johnson who take into account the “insights of sabermetrics,” drawn from data available from 130 years of Major League Baseball history. At the same time, Bernanke sees the importance of more traditional management skills like recognizing and nurturing talent.

Bernanke described Johnson as the epitome of the “head-and-heart consensus” between traditional leadership values and decision-making based on statistical analysis. He said Johnson, who holds a degree in mathematics, fully appreciates the importance of making decisions based on statistics and other factual evidence. But at the same time, Johnson “strikes the right balance between relying on the tangible (data) and the intangible (confidence and motivation).”

I am not well informed about baseball but I particularly enjoyed Bernanke’s column because Johnson’s leadership style is one reason that I, too, have fallen in love with the Nats. Whether we are organizational leaders or just trying to manage our own lives we can learn from practitioners, like Johnson, of what might be called “the Yin and Yang approach” to management.

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of “Yin-Yang” describes how opposite but complementary forces can work together to create a successful whole. He did not use the words “Yin” and “Yang,” but best-selling author Jim Collins illustrated the approach in his wonderful book, “Great By Choice.”

After massive research, Collins concluded that the best leaders are more disciplined, more empirical and more vigilant than others in using data to manage risks. But at the same time, he said, the best leaders share a key trait: their ambition is for their group, their company, their work, their cause and NOT for themselves. In other words, great leaders make choices that are shaped both by their value system and by a dedicated reliance on data, standards and methods.

Daniel Pink took a Yin-Yang approach in his influential book, “A Whole New Mind,” where he said the future belongs to those who can fully employ both hemispheres of their brains. He said it used to be that lawyers, accountants and engineers were taught to rely primarily on the analytical left hemisphere of their brains. But now left-brain thinking isn’t enough to bring success. According to Pink, tomorrow’s leaders will require not only technical and analytical skills but also “emotional intelligence,” encompassing qualities like empathy, self awareness and an appreciation of the arts.

If you want to do a bit a self-coaching, bringing yourself closer to achievement of your goals, consider a Yin-Yang strategy. Sharpen your approach for the remainder of 2012 by creating a two-part plan:

• Yang initiative: look at hard data. Yang energy is tough, assertive, concrete, practical and precise, facing the sun and the light. Yang managers know that you can’t control activities that you cannot measure. Unless you measure something, you don’t know when it’s getting better or worse. And careful measurement helps you to face the facts and grapple with what needs to be done. A classic example in personal life is that dieters who keep careful track of the food they eat every day typically lose more weight than dieters who don’t keep a food log. To craft a Yang strategy, look at an area where you would like to see improvement, find a measure that would demonstrate progress, and maintain a daily log.
• Yin initiative: focus on your values. Yin energy is marked by intuition, sensitivity, thoughtfulness and acceptance of abstract and complex phenomena. A simple Yin exercise is to draft a list of the things in your work or life that matter the most. From there, a Yin strategy could be to come up with a list of 5 to 10 words that capture your most important values, look at the list every day for at least a month, and each day review your calendar to see whether the way you spend your time is consistent with your values.

Number 158

In research-driven “Good to Great,” Jim Collins surprised us by demonstrating that humility – not a massive ego – tends to define the greatest leaders. In “Great By Choice,” Collins, with co-author Morten Hansen, again challenges conventional thinking about leadership.

The authors and their researchers studied the question of why some organizations thrive in uncertain times, even chaos. Their findings debunk leadership myths and offer guidance to anybody who wants to keep going when the going gets tough.

They conclude that, even in a turbulent world, successful leaders are NOT more bold, more able to take risks, more innovative or more able to see the future than their peers. Rather, the best leaders are more disciplined, more empirical and more vigilant in managing risks.

While the book is not primarily about business, the authors studied publicly traded companies because of the available performance data. They identified companies that became spectacular performers in the midst of unstable environments. Because these companies all beat the stock market indices for their industries by at least ten times, they called them “10Xers.”

The authors describe four elements that distinguish 10X leaders from their peers:

• Fanatic discipline. 10Xers understand that they face uncertainty but they don’t let that control them. Instead, they accept responsibility for their own fate and commit to certain consistent actions, standards and methods. Even if it means rejecting traditional norms, they define and live within self-defined constraints. They understand that success requires not a sprint, but a “20-mile march,” with an unwavering commitment to keep going no matter what conditions they may face. The approach can build confidence and create a sense of achievement, even when the big picture is less than perfect.
• Empirical creativity. In times of uncertainty most people look to authority figures and others for cues about how to proceed. But 10Xers ignore conventional wisdom and look primarily to empirical evidence. They experiment, test various approaches and observe what works. And then they take decisive action. Empirical validation allows them to make bold moves and at the same time limit their risks.
• Productive paranoia. 10Xers differ from their less successful peers in how they maintain hyper-vigilance in good times as well as bad. They monitor the environment and constantly consider how things might go wrong. They build cash reserves and prepare for worst-case scenarios. And even when there’s a need for speed, they don’t abandon disciplined thought and action.
• Level 5 ambition. At first glance, the nonconformist 10X leaders don’t look much like the “Level 5” leaders described in “Good to Great.” The 10Xers sometimes attracted attention with eccentric behavior, while the typical Level 5 leader deflected attention from himself, maintained a low profile and led with standards rather than inspiring personality. But the 10Xers and Level 5ers share a key trait: it’s not about them. Sure they are ambitious, but their ambition is for the group, the company, the work, the cause, and NOT for themselves.

Number 177

According to business journalist and career transition expert Kerry Hannon, “The vision of people 50+ spending their retirement years gardening, golfing, and lounging on the beach is out. Meaningful work is in.” What’s different now, she says, is that baby boomers are thinking of paid work as “a pillar of their ‘retirement’ plans.”

In recent years, while researching her books and columns, Kerry has talked with leading career and retirement experts and interviewed hundreds of people about their jobs and transition plans. What she has been hearing is that most of us expect to keep working long after Social Security kicks in. That’s partly because we’ll need more money to maintain our lifestyle. But it also reflects a growing understanding that staying engaged is a key to healthy and happy aging.

Kerry agrees with studies predicting that today’s average 60-year-old can expect to work at least part time for another 15 years or so. And for the most part, she says, this is good news. “To me, it’s exciting, inviting, and empowering. For many retirees, ‘working in retirement’ is quickly becoming a new stage in career progression.”

Despite the grim employment statistics of recent years, Kerry says that the future will bring more jobs, greater employer flexibility and a vast wave of entrepreneurial opportunity for people who want to keep doing some paid work long after the close of their major career.

Kerry’s latest book is, “Great Jobs for Everyone 50+: Finding Work That Keeps You Happy and Healthy ... And Pays the Bills.” In Part One of this useful guide, Kerry offers a smorgasbord of job categories for older workers, like part-time, seasonal, “snow bird” and “night owl” jobs. She says that jobs held by older Americans tend to be more professional, with a third in managerial, business or other professional occupations.

In Part Two, Kerry provides her “Great Jobs Workshop,” a summary of professional advice and strategies she has collected during more than 20 years of writing about career transitions, retirement and financial planning. While her book is aimed at older people, her insights could be helpful to anyone thinking about a job change. Here are some tips that Hannon applies to her own life:

• Go slowly. For almost two decades, while working as a full-time journalist, Kerry built up her free-lance business on the side. She says that many of the successful second actors she has interviewed spent years extending their skill sets, saving money, networking and researching possibilities.
• Keep learning. You never know when you may have to reboot your career. Kerry says we should push ourselves to keep up with evolving technologies; we should be open to new ways of doing things; and we should invest time and money in professional development. As a young woman she expected print journalism to be her “one true love,” but her willingness to explore new media has allowed her to build up a thriving business that operates on many platforms.
• Be nimble and flexible. Kerry says you tap into skills and expertise built over time. But you also should be willing to push into areas that seem uncomfortable or less visible yet have potential to grow. The path in her case was, “print to web to speaking, to radio and television platforms, to consulting with people on career transitions and retirement and personal finance issues and helping them find their path.”
• Watch the trends. “Great Jobs” includes a whole chapter on “ways to ride the age wave.” Kerry says that, “As the 50+ population explodes so do the number of jobs that serve them, from fitness experts and retirement coaches to home health aides and geriatric nurses.” As you explore future career options, think about broad trends that could translate into big opportunities.
• Apprentice, volunteer or moonlight. Kerry suggests you “Do yourself a favor – do the job first. It’s a great way to get in the door and see what goes on behind the scenes. It’s also a networking opportunity.” She says it’s a mistake to discount the value of volunteer work as a way to get started on a new path.

Number 176

A client I’ll call “Cara” has lost about 50 pounds. It is something that she wanted to do for years. But, despite occasional spurts of progress, she was not able to maintain a long-term health and fitness program.

One reason Cara found it difficult to concentrate on weight loss is that she is a very busy person with many business responsibilities and a complicated family. And when Cara has a little free time, she also devotes energy to non-profit activities, as well as to studies and practices that support her personal growth.

Earlier this year, Cara faced business setbacks and increased pressures. Now, however, she has bounced back and her life and work are going better than ever. In fact, in the last few months it’s been as though all her studies and efforts have come together, and she is clearing hurdle after hurdle. Cara is making her fitness and other achievements look effortless, and others may envy her good fortune.

It may look like she is on a lucky streak, but I know that Cara has worked hard to build and maintain habits that reflect learning and wisdom from sources ranging from the Bible and Eastern philosophers to the latest in neuroscience. Here are Cara’s tips for creating a fulfilling life:

• State clear, reasonable goals. Cara is goal-oriented, but in the past she sometimes sabotaged herself with her goal-setting process. For example, she might tell all in her circle that she intended to lose at least 3 pounds a week for 4 months. She thought that by broadcasting her big goal she would keep up the pressure and get the job done. Instead, by setting unreasonable targets she repeatedly set herself up for failure. After a couple of weeks of losing just a pound she would quit, saying that it was just too hard for a busy person like her. These days what she does is establish realistic goals and timetables. She shares her plans with only a few people and, when she stumbles, she forgives herself and returns to her realistic plan.
• Visualize your objectives. Cara used to talk her goals to death, but she has learned a better technique. She now reduces each key objective to a few words, and from there she creates a mental picture. For example, she has in her mind the image of the slim and athletic version of herself that she plans to be in 2020. For her most important goals she may even devise a symbol, or icon, to glance at regularly as a reminder of her commitment. She quietly wears a bracelet that displays several of those icons in the form of charms. When she notices her bicycle charm she is reminded that spinning and mountain biking are part of her formula for becoming a fit, energetic person.
• Keep track of progress. As a business executive, Cara knows that it’s hard to manage anything you can’t measure. She maintains daily charts summarizing everything from her calorie count to networking activity and time devoted to her most important projects. She also keeps journals, sometimes including pictures as well as words, and she finds them to be an important tool for keeping on track.
• Work on several areas at once. When she was younger, Cara thought that total immersion was the best way to get things done. One reason she gained so much weight is that there were times when she spent months working around the clock, not thinking about her health or other values in her life. Then, when she could no longer fit in her clothes, she would launch time-consuming food and exercise regimens that inevitably failed because she couldn’t keep them up. Now, however, she reminds herself each morning of goals and achievements in five critical areas of her life. She finds that success in one area translates quickly into increased confidence, renewed energy and greater creativity in the other areas. These are the realms that Cara thinks about every day:
  • health and fitness,
  • business and financial security,
  • spouse and family,
  • spiritual life and personal growth, and
  • fun and adventure.